Parenting and Censorship

One of the hardest things for me as a parent is trying not to impose my likes and dislikes onto my children. Just because I kind of hate baseball, doesn't mean I want my children to hate baseball.

I don't want mini-me's. I want to discover my kids' personalities along with them.

I do find myself from time to time (and a lot of parents do this - don't pretend you don't), when talking to the kids and giving them a choice between two items, putting a positive inflection on what I want them to choose, and a negative tone on what I wouldn't choose.

i.e. Would you like flatbread pizza for lunch ( smiley face )? Or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches ( frowny face )?

i.e. #2 Do you want to wear this pink dress ( smiley face )? Or this mermaid t-shirt ( frowny face )?
NOTE: That mermaid t-shirt that used to be her all time favorite but now is getting raggedy, kind of short and has a few unsightly stains...

I'm working on that. Christopher catches me all the time.

I like to keep an open policy on shows, movies and books my children watch/read (as long as it's age appropriate and doesn't give them nightmares).  I've encouraged things they seem to get into and find it exciting to discover new things and rediscover old things from my childhood as well.

For example, we watched Ponyo a couple years back, and since then they've been into many Studio Ghibli films and even some (age appropriate, of course) anime on Netflix. I would have never suggested watching Princess Tutu before... even Pokemon is out of my range of comprehension. But Princess Tutu was very intriguing, a beautiful story and inspired many afternoons of dancing around and dramatics involving ducks.

But, I've found lately, I've had to draw the line on a few shows. We don't watch much TV and what we do watch is usually something they've found streaming on Netflix. One that sticks out is Bratz shows/movies. I've even only caught short snippets of this show and decided this is something I definitely don't want my kids watching. Those Bratz girls on the show really are brats and so superficial. I don't want my sweet little children acting like that.

Great, now I sound like one of those Moms...

And then yesterday, Christopher mentioned something about Pucca (another one of their lately favorite shows to watch) portraying Americans in a negative light. This somehow didn't bother me much, but it did him.

I'm wondering, am I... are we turning into those kinds of parents? The parents that censor their children from the really cool and popular things? Is this the beginnings of us turning our children into social outcasts?

Please leave me your feedback. 

I'd love to know where other parents draw the line in their censorship. 

 

<3, Tabi :D

 

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